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Boulder County commissioners to review proposed oil, gas regulations

By John FryarLongmont Times-Call

Posted:
11/10/2012 08:29:49 PM MST

Updated:
11/10/2012 08:30:42 PM MST

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What: Boulder County commissioners will consider -- and hold a public hearing on -- proposed revisions, updates and additions to the county Land Use Code's regulations about oil and gas exploration and production in unincorporated parts of the county.

Further information: The Board of County Commissioners may table any action on the oil and gas regulations and resume their discussions of the proposed rules during a meeting scheduled for 9 a.m. Thursday. That Thursday morning meeting will be open to the public, but commissioners may not take public-hearing testimony. The latest draft of the regulations, including provisions the County Planning Commission recommended Oct. 30, is posted at bouldercounty.org/dept/landuse/pages/oilgas.aspx.

BOULDER -- The latest proposed version of Boulder County's efforts to avoid potentially negative impacts of oil and gas operations in unincorporated parts of the county -- or to mitigate those impacts, if they can't be avoided -- is up for the Board of County Commissioners' review Tuesday afternoon.

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The commissioners are actively seeking comments from members of the general public, representatives of the oil and gas industry and government agencies about a draft of Boulder County Land Use Code regulations that'll be the subject of a public hearing at Tuesday's meeting, county officials said.

The Board of County Commissioners' Tuesday hearing comes two weeks after the County Planning Commission concluded several months of hearings and meetings on updating local land-use rules intended to address the impacts of an expected expansion of oil and gas drilling and production, particularly in eastern Boulder County, after a county moratorium on accepting and processing new drilling applications expires next Feb. 4.

Meanwhile, the county commissioners' Tuesday consideration of the planning panel's Oct. 30 recommendations will come a week after Longmont voters approved amending the city's municipal charter to ban fracking inside Longmont's city limits.

For months, Boulder County officials have been getting written and public-hearing appeals from county residents wanting the county to prohibit the practice of hydraulic fracturing -- the injection of a mixture of sand, chemicals and water to free underground oil and gas deposits -- throughout unincorporated Boulder County.

Last month, planning commissioners got a batch of virtually identical emails that Food and Water Watch sent on behalf of county residents, such as one from Longmont resident Stephanie Ziegler, who said: "I urge you to protect our drinking water, our clean air and our property by banning fracking in Boulder County."

Thus far, the county's staff has taken the position that Boulder County can't legally impose such a permanent drilling ban under current Colorado statutes and past court decisions.

Some fracking critics have complained the stricter land-use restrictions Boulder County is considering wouldn't do enough to protect the environment and the public's health and safety, but Boulder County has also been hearing from some oil and gas industry representatives who contend that at least some of the proposed conditions are preempted by the state-assigned regulatory authority of the Colorado Oil and Gas Conservation Commission.

Daniel Kelly, Noble Energy Inc.'s vice president for operations in the Wattenberg Field, wrote planning commissioners last month that though Boulder County has solicited comments from Noble and other oil and gas companies, the county "has not afforded adequate opportunity for stakeholders to meaningfully participate in the development of the rules or to conduct the kind of thorough review that is required of such sweeping regulations."

In the county Land Use Department's memo to the Board of County Commissioners for Tuesday's meeting, the county staff said the draft regulations are intended "to provide the maximum protection possible for local public health, safety and welfare under current state and federal law."

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